Tag: Board Games

09/18/15

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #77

Hey now, it’s been a few weeks, so we thought we’d throw another GARPA at you.  Plus, y’know, we had it on the schedule and all…

Brant Guillory, 18 September 2015

 

Mech Deck (Patrick Fahy)
$19k of $75k, ends 1 October 2015

These guys may have over-reached with the funding goal, but it’s because they’re committed to the quality of the manufacturing.  “Manufacturing what?” you ask.  Customizable, multi-component, build-your-own mech-walker-battle-droid-giant-fighting-thingees (trying to avoid inadvertently violating someone’s copyright here, work with me).  It’s a hex-and-minis skirmish game, but with mech figures that you can literally assemble on-the-fly to customize your arms, torso, legs, and “backpack” (back of torso) to make your own mech and then duke it out for bragging rights, or beer.   There’s some card-based randomizing as well as a geomorphic map.  Stomp over to the campaign page and fire off your pledge.

g77-mech

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09/16/15

Modern Land Battles – First Look!

Jim Owczarski, 16 September 2015

It is sobering to note that the original “Modern Naval Battles” card game dates back to 1989.  It and its offspring have remained one of the more successful titles in the canon of Dan Verssen.  I must confess myself, however, to be not the greatest fan of modern naval battles so I’ve somehow managed to give it a miss all these years.  Now, however, comes this box in the mail and matters are different:

Oh...my...
Oh…my…

It’s not the “Field Commander” or “Tiger Leader” monster box and it’s all together lighter than either.  Inside is a rule book, a sheet of counters, a wee bag of four 10-sided dice, and a lot of nicely-done cards.

 

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09/5/15

First Impressions of Marvel Dice Masters: Avengers vs. X-Men

Slinging dice?  Awwww, yeaaaaaah!

Michael Eckenfels, 5 September 2015

The Dice Masters phenomenon has been going on for a while now, starting with Quarriors! and blowing up into several different themes, including Dungeons and Dragons, Yu-Gi-Oh, and too many others for me to even want to wrap my head around. It’s bad enough that I already have been collecting two of these damnable things, though I’ve slowed my purchases of them greatly in the last few months (mostly to spend it on X-Wing Miniatures stuff, but more articles on that later).

For those curious, the Avengers vs. X-Men Dice Masters game is one of the more popular iterations of this system (because hey, Marvel), but is relatively easy to find in hobby stores or online. And this isn’t necessarily a good thing. If you’re addicted to something bad, is having it readily available a good thing, necessarily?

Dice are the new crack.
Dice are the new crack.

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09/4/15

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #76

OK, so we’ve got something completely different for you this week.

Brant Guillory, 4 September 2015

 

Hawk The Hunter (Terry Marcel)
$19k of $500k, ends 1 OCT 2015

Remember the old fantasy flick Hawk the Slayer?  Of course you do.  You totally plundered it for campaign ideas for your early no-prefix D&D games.  Jack Palance chewing scenery.  The hokey rapid-fire elf-archer effects.  The cross-necklace-of-course-it’s-a-hidden-knife saving the day at the end.  Well it’s taken them 30 years, but they finally got around to trying to make the sequel, and they’re kickstarting it.  You can start at $5, and score the RiffTrax quip-along, and top out at a couple of grand that gets you a part in the movie.  Why are you still here instead of pledging the campaign?  Oh right, you’re here to watch the movie.


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08/22/15

A Preview of Fog & Friction

Jim gets his paws on an early copy of Fog & Friction and tells us what we’re in store for when the rest of us finally get our hooks into it.

Jim Owczarski, 22 August 2015

As an historical miniatures gamer down to my genome, I live for the spectacle of the gaming table.  In moments of weakness I have considered those willing to play on tables smaller than those used for ping pong a lesser breed of men and been dismissive of those games and rule sets than enable them.  With age comes wisdom, though, no matter what my wife would tell you, and I’ve grown to see the merits of games that offer a smaller footprint while still trying to offer a bit of what draws each of us to the hobby.  In this light, Pondfoot Games’ “Fog and Friction” (hereafter F&F) is a fine offering — it brings some of the toys, drama, and tension that make gaming the Second World War so appealing and lets you do it all on your kitchen table.

I’ll leave aside the fits and starts that this project has experienced as it’s tried to make its way to market (more here) and say that my remarks will confine themselves to the promo copy of the base set I received from the folks at Pondfoot.  The offering is simple enough:  two 60-card core decks, one each for the Axis and the Allies, and two 30-card expansion decks.  The game is non-collectible (first step towards toleration for me) but the designers hope to offer several expansion sets that will allow players to eventually fight in theaters other than the familiar terrain of Normandy represented in the base set as well as adding in new units and special cards.

Yep, decks of cards.  You were expecting model T-34s?
Yep, decks of cards.  You were expecting model T-34s?

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